Things to mark life by.

You may notice that I made no special blogging attempt during the New Year. No resolutions, no inspirational messages heralding the next 365 days of our lives, no special video production, nada, zilch, nothing. In the past, I have made a big deal about the new year, but oddly enough I was not inspired particularly to do so this time around.

Please understand, I certainly do see the merit in such things- the new year is a great way to get a fresh start and help facilitate 'reorientation' of one's perspective on life. As a Christian, it can be a wonderful opportunity to focus one's walk with the Lord and commit towards further excellence in faith an almighty God. I have definitely experienced these blessings in the past and am thankful to God for them.

The thing is, this year is different because my life is being marked by a greater event- the beginning of my marriage. With marriage on the horizon most everything else seems to pale in comparison. The patient expectation of marriage companionship is drawing near. During this time I find myself reminded of a THE everlasting covenant that supersedes all covenants- the promise of eternal life through THE bridegroom, Jesus Christ. What an awesome and wonderful thing our Lord has done- he's taken a wretched bride, His church (read here as you and me!) and made her beautiful through His own divinely ordained, sanctifying process. I can think of no better way to mark the new year, then by the event of my own wedding. What an excellent, two-fold reminder God gives us through the anniversaries and occasions of weddings. It is my prayer that on these special days I would always remember that 1) I have been blessed beyond measure by a beautiful, intelligent, God-centered woman and 2) I have been even further blessed beyond deserving by a Savior that provided a means of redemption for a dirty, sinful creature like myself.

All this to say- events are great, holidays are wonderful, resolutions are grand, but... realistic appreciation of the relationships God has placed in your life and a commitment towards deepening those relationships is, in my opinion, the best. Whatever event you mark your life by, be it the New Year, a wedding, or something else, it is my prayer that you keep it centered on the one thing that truly matters most- Christ.

"Love the LORD, all his saints! The LORD preserves the faithful, but the proud he pays back in full. Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the LORD." -Psalm 31:23-24

Pandora

Pandora is incredible- I've stopped eating sliced bread since discovering this service. You know why? Because its better than sliced bread- thats why (you knew it was coming, don't pretend you didn't)! Check it out and thank me later.

Alrighty... I promise I'll stop my shameless service plugs here for at least a few days... I think...

Invitations Arrive Tomorrow!

The wedding invitations are coming in tomorrow! I feel so very blessed- O'Neil printing is comping our order completely as a wedding gift to us (Conny and Tony- you are truly blessed friends- THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart). For the designers of you out there who are actively looking to pick up a friend in the printing business, I would suggest, no scratch that... I would BEG that you get in contact with O'Neil Printing. There is no finer, classier, nobler printing company out there. They truly do break the mold with their customer service and self interest in their clients. The company itself is employee-owned so everyone that works there has a vested interest in doing the best possible job for all their clients. Now they most certainly won't comp your order but they'll give you a very competitive price and will guarantee the best quality product available on the market. I love this company... can you tell?

Due to O'Neil Printing, I was given the rare opportunity to dream up an invitation from scratch. The finished product is an oddly sized 5.5"x5.5" shell which contains a pocket flap with stepped inserts containing information about the ceremony, reception, registry, and directions. It is printed on a beautiful pearlescent-type paper and aqueous coated for durability. It has turned out to be a really gorgeous print piece! I'm really jazzed about all of this and am thinking of investing into the wedding preparation design market. I'd like to specifically focus on those couples who want nonstandard print materials which distinguish them from design norms that abound in the current market. This all of course will be after my own wedding, but still- it's exciting to see a potential design niche to grab onto and explore.

Holiday Recap

Hello friends- I hope that you all were able to enjoy a very restful Christmas with friends and family! The Christmas season is an awesome reminder of what Christ, our Savior, has done for us. Its not only a time to remember his birth, but a time to remember that He was born for a reason. Indeed, He was born to die for our sins. I admit that I often lose sight of this and regret my self-centered actions. As a sinful man it seems that it is all too easy to lose focus on Christ in favor for my own worries and stresses. Friends, I pray that you and I may run to the cross always. Let us never forget that the problems of this life are fleeting, but our God is forever.

I would appreciate prayers in the upcoming month. My fiance and I are approaching the final month of wedding preparations which has its unique, yet often blessed, stresses attached to it. Please pray that God would continue to draw us closer together through our love and service to Him alone. I am also looking at quite a rigorous schedule of design work coming up which should definitely prove to be challenging. It seems that I have often been reminded of my inability to control circumstances of late. However, I take courage in the fact that God is control of all things. There is a great couple of verses in Psalm 127 that I find particularly encouraging (1,2):

Unless the LORD builds the house,
its builders labor in vain.
Unless the LORD watches over the city,
the watchmen stand guard in vain.

In vain you rise early
and stay up late,
toiling for food to eat—
for he grants sleep to [a] those he loves.

What a great reminder for me personally! I try to control things so often. In vain I stay up late. I lose sleep while trying to accomplish impossible tasks. Though its hard to do so, I've found that it is often better to let go of some of these 'impossible' stresses and just sleep on it at times (I am definitely preaching to myself first and foremost on this... see my "Sleep- I Defy Thee..." post for confirmation on that!). After a good night's sleep I find that I am refreshed and empowered in the morning. In this way I am much more able to rely on God to fully give me the strength to persevere through any trial. How often do we forget that God created rest for a reason? God delights in the rest of his people and designed us as human beings to operate this way. May we never forget the value of a commitment to restfulness in our Lord.

JJ Abrams is My Hero

Between JJ Abram's highly anticipated movie 'Cloverfield' and Lost Season 4... man... that's just creative talent coming out the ears...

Heck yes.

Excellent Sermon

My pastor spoke on the parable of the treasures today. He did an excellent job using scripture to illustrate how God does the choosing of His people; not the other way around. I love Pastor John's straightforward style and felt like this was some much needed spiritual food for the soul. How blessed am I that God sought me out and made me His child? You can check out this sermon and more from Grace Covenant at our broadcasting site hosted at Sermon Audio.

'Tis the Season

'Tis the season of much design work! Working at Food for the Hungry has proven to be a major delight and joy. My job continually challenges me to put my best foot forward and embrace new projects. I've been hard at work developing departmental brandings (see image for a mock example of what I've been working on), creating team shirts, producing training manuals, magazine ads, brochures, and plenty of web-based graphics. Its been a busy few weeks, but I wouldn't trade it for anything.

I am nearly done with a lot of the wedding collateral thats been weighing on me for the last month and am excited to have that printed up and out the door soon! Thank you all for being so receptive to this new format and encouraging me to keep up documenting the oddities of my life via this web interface.